Cooking today is in many respects as much an art as a science, and care must often be taken during cooking to ensure that food is neither overcooked nor undercooked, which often requires constant monitoring of a cooking appliance, e.g., a range, stovetop, oven, or the like. Cooking fundamentally involves applying cooking energy to food, e.g., through the application of heat, and it has been found that the rate at which energy is applied to food, as well as the duration, can have an appreciable effect on taste, texture and other physical properties of the food.
The Maillard reaction, for example, is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that occurs in browned foods such as breads, meats, and pastries, among other foods, and that imparts a distinct and pleasing flavor to many such foods. The Maillard reaction occurs relatively quickly under high heat of around 140 to 165 degrees Celsius, and for many foods proceeds rapidly under continued heating to caramelization and/or charring. The Maillard reaction may in particular be prevalent as a result of cooking foods at a high heat, e.g., when broiling in an oven, searing in a pan, or cooking on a grill, etc. Cooking at high heat, however, can also lead to uneven cooking of thicker foods, potentially leading to foods being undercooked in the center and yet overcooked and dried out or burnt on the outside. Conversely, cooking food for a longer duration but at a lower temperature can provide more even cooking throughout the food, but often at the expense of taste if the temperatures required for the Maillard reaction are not achieved. In many cases therefore a combination of temperatures may be used, e.g., by cooking food at a lower temperature for some time period and then finishing by increasing the temperature for a short period of time. Other foods, such as egg-based dishes such as soufflés, meringues, and the like, undergo significant physical changes during cooking and are highly sensitive to the rate at which heat is applied during the cooking process, and thus may also be challenging to prepare properly. Such techniques, however, often are performed manually by a cook, and rely on the cook's expertise and prior experience to ensure that both the rate of applied energy and the duration of cooking at different rates are suitable for the food being prepared. For less experienced cooks, however, these techniques may be difficult to implement manually, and can lead to undesirable results. Further, even with an experienced cook, any distraction at a critical moment of the cooking process, e.g., when the cook is busy preparing other food, washing dishes, watching television, etc., can also lead to undesirable results.
Accordingly, a need continues to exist in the art for a manner of controlling a cooking appliance such as a stovetop, oven, range, grill, etc. to provide greater control, consistency and repeatability of cooking than can be achieved manually.